BETHLEHEM, Pa. — It takes strong partnerships, said Kassie Hilgert, to keep the nation’s largest free music festival tidy and litter to a minimum.
“It's a true partnership — with the city, volunteers and staff trying to keep the festival grounds as clean as possible,” said Hilgert, CEO of ArtsQuest. “And I would give a shout out to the attendees, too, who do their best to make sure trash gets in the trash can.”
- From reusable mugs to the elimination of food and beverage tickets, Musikfest organizers have worked to lower the event's negative environmental impacts
- 500 trash and recycling cans are used during the event
- Community members say trash is handled well
In its 40th year, Musikfest attracts tens of thousands of people to the city each day during its 10-day run. While the fest’s iconic – and reusable – mug has made a significant dent in the amount of trash attendees could create over the years, and the recent elimination of paper tickets for food and beverages has driven down waste further, officials said they’re continuously working to lessen the event’s impact on the environment.
“We have almost 500 volunteers a day, sometimes on site at Musikfest, and they're doing everything from running platzes to emptying garbage cans,” Hilgert said. “ … We always get really dedicated volunteers that are passionate about making sure the festival grounds are neat and the trash cans are emptied.”
Sustainability, accessibility
The fest’s reusable mug program is popular, with 70% of all drafts and mixed drinks poured into them, Hilgert said.
“And it isn't just a mug you can use at Musikfest,” she said. “You can use it year 'round. At Christkindlmarkt, close to 50% of all of our drafts and mixed drinks are put into refillable mugs and Oktoberfest, it's also more than 50%.”
In 2021, organizers eliminated paper food and beverage tickets — a move not only with sustainability, but also accessibility, in mind.
“Not everybody has a credit card. Not everybody has a bank account. And, our mission is to increase access to the arts for all,” she said. “So if you have cash and you want to come to the festival, we want to make sure that it's something you can do.
“Eliminating the food and beverage tickets not just eliminates the one ton of paper, but it allows people using a card that they can load up with cash and use it at any event vendor at the festival.”
The fest also employs some renewable energy sources for the tents, vendors and beer trucks constantly running electricity.
“PPL uses a mix of electricity, including renewable and alternatives like hydrogen or landfill gasses,” Hilgert said. “So that can be up to 18% renewable energy per consumer.”
The energy company has been part of the fest since it's inception, said Tracie Witter, PPL's manager of stakeholder engagement and external communications.
"While we don’t generate the electricity that is used, we have developed an innovative self-healing grid that is stronger and more resilient, allowing us to better deliver the electricity needed to help events like Musikfest go off without missing a beat," Witter said.
Officials estimate PPL distributes two megawatts of power through the course of the 10-day event.
"This is enough energy to power about 700 average homes throughout the duration of the festival," she said.
There are 500 trash and recycling cans positioned throughout the festival grounds, providing ample opportunity to dispose of waste properly. However, officials stressed the need for attendees to pay attention to what items are deposited in each bin.
“One thing I would certainly say to attendees to please, please pay attention to is that nothing should go into the recycling besides recycling. If someone puts one hot dog in there, or one chicken wing, that contaminates the entire recycling bin.”Kassie Hilgert, CEO of ArtsQuest
“One thing I would certainly say to attendees to please, please pay attention to is that nothing should go into the recycling besides recycling,” Hilgert said. “If someone puts one hot dog in there, or one chicken wing, that contaminates the entire recycling bin.”
Spill over into the city?
With the influx of visitors to the city, it would make sense that litter would increase — but community members say that hasn’t really happened.
Kathy Frederick, founder of LV Clean Up and one of the region’s litter vigilantes, said the group “notices no increase in trash that one could tie to Musikfest,” offering the caveat that the group focuses more on Allentown.
Several commented on the volunteers Hilgert noted, saying they constantly see them cleaning up trash or emptying cans. However, sometimes trash slips through.
“I would say from my experience the trash I see is the food/beverage scraps,” said Kyra Kunsman, founder of LV Trash Pact. “Plastic cups are an issue and the containers that the food comes in.
“I'm going to keep my eyes peeled more this year to see what's around, I unfortunately didn't go last year.”
Asked about the possibility of attendees bringing in their own, or reusable utensils and plates, Hilgert said each vendor needs to be cleared by the Department of Health to serve food and drinks.
“The biggest issue with people bringing down their own plates is you don't know how clean they are, or sanitized,” she said. “I think that would be a big health concern.”
‘Measuring what our impact is’
Moving forward, officials are working on replacing the campus' lights with energy-saving LEDs, which “is going to cut down significantly on energy use,” Hilgert said. But there could be other changes in the works, too.
“I think the biggest issue that we've looked at over and over again is compostable cups,” Hilgert said, explaining that without a mug, drinks are poured into plastic. “Those are great in theory, but a few problems with them right now that we don't see an immediate solution to is that there's no local compost center, and compostable cups are not allowed in a landfill.”
Another obstacle is the festival’s setting and timing – outdoors, exposed to the heat of early August. If compostable cups aren’t kept at a certain temperature, they can melt together.
“So you'd have to almost expend more energy to keep them from not melting, which defeats the purpose,” Hilgert said. “So we continue to look for the perfect, recyclable plastic cup. We're looking for it.
“We're not finding any right now, but we're certainly going to keep an eye on the trends in the industry.”
It’s a continuous effort, Hilgert said, to lessen the festival’s impact on the environment.
“It’s just measuring what our impact is and then looking at year over year, how we can gradually reduce that,” she said. “We are working and we're always looking for suggestions.
“If people in the community have ideas, we’d love to hear them.”
